Unreachable Touch

My eyes were thrown open due to the ear splitting sounds of banging on the door. I regretted just then jumping up from the bed, but I managed to twist open the door and saw Lyzeth there screaming and throwing herself on the door. "What?" I asked with my eyes wide open. Her forsaken face came to look at mine and she just continued screaming while tears streaked down her cheeks. I saw Demitree step out of her room, calmly and glanced at her then made his way over to me. "You should be getting more rest." His voice easily overpowered the shrieks given by Lyzeth. "What did you do to her?" My voice cracked. "I told her the truth and she didn't believe me, so I gave a demonstration."

My eyes grew wider and my mouth dropped to the floor. "Relax, it was just an animal. I showed her what I am and she didn't like it at all." He gave a pitting expression to Lyzeth bawling on the floor. I crawled over to her, hugging her. "It's ok, it's okay." She threw her arms around my shoulders and sobbed into my shirt. "He-he-he killed a-a-a-" She wasn't able to finish her sentence with her hyperventilating. "Yes, yes. That's what they do." I sighed. She looked up at me with horror filled eyes. "You knew." She accused correctly. I nodded my head.

"You're one of them!" She cried, throwing herself off of me. "We wouldn't touch her." Demitree swooped down and covered her mouth. "We wouldn't hurt you either. IF we haven't even given you a paper cut, what makes you think that now we're going to start misbehaving?" Her chest moved up and down in a bizarre pattern then slowed down.

"Much better." He sighed and placed her down. I felt a hand wrap around my waist and direct me to my room. I was surprised to look up and see it was Alec rather than Demitree. "Sorry you had to see that. We didn't know that she would react like that." He muttered, closing the door. "What did you show her?" He shook his head, rubbing his temples. "Demitree brought her a rabbit and he snapped her neck right in front of her and he showed her how we ate." He sighed. "She got scared because she thought you guys were kidding, right?" He nodded his head silently and sat on my bed. "Oh, by the way, you have a visitor. I don't think he wants me here with you, though." He chuckled, knowing I wouldn't get the joke. Darn inside jokes…

My door creaked open and Curio stepped in. "Hello, Mistress Lynette." He bowed. "Hi, Curio." I waved gently. "How are you doing? Better, I hope?" I nodded my head. "Much better." I lied. Alec threw me a look which told me he knew I was fibbing. "That's good. I was hoping Alec told you about the news?" He gave him a look this time and Alec shook his head. "I'm giving you the honors." He placed his hand out.

"Greatly appreciated, thank you." He continued to grin happily. "First of all, I have come to remind you that today is our ceremony. The small dinner I mentioned to you earlier?" I nodded my head when he paused for my reaction. "Thank you. Now, the rest of the news will be held there at the small party. There is something else but I think I will save that for later news." He chuckled lightly to himself.

"That's taunting, isn't it?" Alec cleared his throat. "Well, right now it is nothing important that she needs to know. If you want me to, however, just say and I shall." He bowed again towards me. "I think I can wait." I pouted my bottom lip and nodded my head. "Then I am glad that is settled. I shall see you tonight at the manor." He literally turned a full 180 degrees and made his way out the door. "Shouldn't I be getting ready?" I asked, sidetracked from his graceful exit. He shrugged his shoulders. "You don't have to go. We really don't expect you to." He was being too careless. "You're such a horrible liar." I shook my head disapproving and I lifted myself up from the bed in a slow manner. He sighed, rubbing his temples. "I may not be able to lie to you, but I'm pretty convincing to my parents. I can squeeze out a lie and they wouldn't know it was different from the truth." He chuckled. I laughed, shaking my head. "No, I'd rather not challenge your skills. Is it a formal party?" I asked, eyeing a small black dress that had my name written all over it.

"Semi-formal. Nicely dressed but you can afford to slack off with jeans." He answered. "Should I get some for you?" I raised my eyebrows as he pointed at the exact drawer I kept just for my jeans. "You're not very good at being hidden, are you?" I laughed, grabbing out the dress and making my way over with some nice dress shoes and stockings. "What do you mean by that?" He seemed truly confused as his perfect face crumpled with frowns and his eye brows pulled together. "How many times have you been into my room?" I asked innocently, knowing how precise he was.

"This is my second time." His eyebrows were still furrowed in perplexity. "Apparently not. You knew exactly where I put my jeans." I smiled wickedly, reaching for my shoes. His face remained unchanged. "It was a wild guess. Besides, I was pointing specifically at the dresser."

"It's common to put them in the closet, not the dresser." I corrected. This time, his eyebrow pulled up. "I fold mine into my dresser. It’s quite common to me." I rolled my eyes. "Sure, sure." I sighed, concentrating on what kind of stockings I was going to wear. "Should I leave?" He asked. "Unless you want to help me change" I teased, smiling lightly to myself, wanting to see his face so badly. "If you want me to help, I'm not one to oblige." Oh cheese, ok, maybe I didn’t expect that out of him. "Actually," "I was just kidding. I'll get Phoebe if you need any help. I'm sure she's not one to object." He laughed, probably picturing me already hurting from that tight corset she was going to lace onto my body. "No thanks." I waved my hands up in the air. "You're choice. Do you want a ride or are you going to surprise us all?" He questioned.

"I don't want any of you to see." I laughed. "Fine then. I can get Nick to drive you there. He needs to get off his butt for something anyway." He chuckled, closing my door. Okay, now to get dressed. I laced up the corset in the front and snuggled it tightly around my body. Then I slipped over the lacey and frilly black and red dress. I dressed my legs with spider web stockings and pitch black noticeable shoes that reminded me of Robin's (Batman's guy) with the metal at the bottom. I grabbed a couple of curls and pinned them up with a bobby pin and shoved a small red flower into the bunch of curls gathered. I then placed on little lip gloss, applied very little eyeliner and mascara and I was done.
I dialed in Nick's number on my cell and after three rings, he picked up. "Hello?" His sleepy voice answered. "Hi Nick!" I grinned over the receiver. "Lynette! Agh! Crap! Geez- so how you doing?" I heard various crashes over the line.

"Um, okay." I replied, wondering if that woke him up. "Oh, I heard you needed a ride, right? To the mansion?" "Er, yeah." I laughed. "No problemo! Nick's limo service at your command! Lemme get my shoes on-AGH!" He hollered on the phone. "I'll be right there." He hung up. I laughed, flipping my cell back. I waited outside for his car to drive up and surely enough, it did in a matter of seconds. I hopped into the front seat. "Ello!" I grinned.

I could have sworn his mouth touched the gas pedal. "Oh geez. You look, well, wow." He rubbed the back of his neck, blushing madly. I laughed. "Thank you." I giggled. "Oh, well, let's go." He looked away from me and literally whip lashed out of the drive way. "Are you sure you're certified to drive?" I asked. "Of course!" He frowned and zoomed off at a speed that only Alec could outrun at. I looked out the window, seeing where we are. Houses zoomed in and out of sight in a matter of milliseconds the suddenly we disappeared into the mountain sides. "Where are we going?" I asked instantly, worry in my voice.

"To the mansion. Where else?" He chuckled goofily as he continued to drive. "It's all the way out here?" I solicited incredulously. "We can't go public with this kind of stuff. It's family history that goes back to the 1600's. It's a shame that Christopher Columbus got to live before us, though." He sighed deceptively as he pressed harder on the gas pedal. "Is that safe?" He rolled his eyes. "Would I be doing it if it wasn't?" I shrugged my shoulders. "You tell me." I sank into the leather seat and waited for something to come into view. After two hours of driving, Nick finally broke the silence. "Our father is the only one who's lived the longest. Ha, you should ask him everything. So far, he's bragged about telling us that he's drunken Queen Elizabeth's blood, helped Columbus sail the seven seas, conquered the Aztecs in place of Cortez, and he's swam from Nazareth to Italy." He laughed at the facts. "He's your dad too?" I raised an eyebrow.

"How do I say this? Well, he got a little too frisky with a human woman and nine months later popped out me. I'm proud to say I'm the first baby to be born from a woman and a vampire." He grinned. That would explain the similar skin color but Alec and everyone else had still outrun him in that. "So you guys are actually stepbrothers?" I corrected their term of cousins. "Yes, technically. But we'd rather say cousins than step brothers because everyone gets nosey." He explained. I nodded my head simply as my eyes darted to the dark figure that appeared out of the mountain sides. I sighed, just a bigger cave. Nick drove into the small road that ended at the mountain's beginning. He whipped out his cell and dialed in a number. He spoke patiently into the phone, "We're here." And suddenly hung up. I couldn't believe what happened next.

The mountain literally started to lift up from the ground as if it was a monstrous garage shed and inside came sounds of water thrashing against rapids. "Where are we?"

"Where we were heading to. Welcome to our home." He grinned as he turned and parked the car near the waterfall that fell in a humongous circular shape. "This is the garage for us and the entry way. Most people don't get even this far. Most of them die after trying to swim against the water." He laughed as he clicked the alarm and whipped out his phone again. "Hey, we're here." He sighed for a moment before replying. "I need help, you know. The whole reason I called." He shot me a glance real quick and responded, "Yes, she's here. Fine then, but if I fall trying to carry her up, you can’t blame me." He hung up the phone, snarling. "I think we have to take the long way." He pointed up at some rock edges. "You're kidding, right?" I raised my eyebrows. "I know you just got out of the hospital, so we're giving you an advantage. It's a long walk but it's better than what I'll be doing." He hit a couple of rocks that pushed inward and sprang back out then rock stairs slid out of the waterfall. "I guess asking for rails are out of the question, huh?" I laughed, nervously.

"Just maybe so." He laughed, getting his foot already in a socket. "Well, we better get moving; It's a twelve-oh-oh foot climb." My eyes widened and I felt like already giving up. I saw something flashing down in a quick motion and landing on the floor. "I will not have this!" Curio's perfectly toned voice shouted, outraged. "Please, if you don't mind, Mistress Lynette, may I carry you on my shoulder?" Whoa, what?

"Your shoulder?" I asked, spacing out with his perfectly stunning image right in front of my face. "Yes, my shoulder, please. I would never dream of putting you through one ounce of strain when you just got out of the infirmary." I nodded my head as he gently hoisted me over his shoulder where I sat. "If I'm heavy, I can walk." I offered, not wanting to put any unneeded effort into the 1,200 foot climb. "No no, I wouldn't dream of having a maiden walk such a long and unsafe distance." He replied and climbed up with no attempt, but this time slower.

His grip on my legs that dangled off his shoulder was strong, but it didn't hurt at all. I was surprised that I was able to keep my calm as he balanced me, now almost finished with the trek upwards. It was over before I could even start complaining. In about two minuets, Curio had set me on solid ground and took my hand imperceptibly with both of his. "I hope the journey wasn't too unpleasant, was it?" I shook my head, speechless. "Thank goodness. Now, if you don't mind, we shall advance to the common's room. There are things my kin would like to discuss." Still holding my hand nimbly like a child, he led me into the castle doors.

Behind the metal spiked doors lie golden carpets with maroon painted walls with gold 18th century designs etched with tables and tables of antiques and photographs portrayed on the walls. When we stopped at one glorious hallway, there lie many more with the same design of carpeting and walling. Something I finally noticed that was the paneling was metal thorns running across the top of the wall, the bottom, and the edges. Well, the irony had to be somewhere.

Finally after what seemed like a mile hike around the house, we finally reached a room where he opened the crystal doorknob and turned it in a slow manner. When we stepped in with a graceful tread, I felt like slumping out of existence. There were thousands of vampires gathered around the room, sipping quietly on a crystal shot glass that was filled with a substance I could only guess at. Curio pressed me closer to his body, almost as if shielding me from the publicity. He led me carefully ad silently to another room where the family was. I was relieved to see Phoebe, Hero, Alec, Vivian, Demitree, David and Marie sitting on a couch. "You made it!" Phoebe ran up to me and gently pecked a kiss on my cheek. "Thank you." I laughed. I noticed that Curio still hadn't let me move an inch away from him. I took note that everyone was dressed well even with jeans and a flannel shirt. "Welcome. We have many things to discuss before you're able to be let out." Demitree said hushed. "If you don't mind, Curio. I think the poor girl needs to breath." He remarked. Instead, he merely placed me on the couch and sat even closer next to me.

Demitree gave a pitiful sigh and sat on my other side. "Remember that legend that I told you about a while back ago?" Crapola, darn my memory. "Think," He whispered desperately. "Something with a man traveling up the mountain and he was turned into-" “Yes, that one. Anyway, there's something we're not telling you. That man is our father; he created every single of us. And he wishes to meet you." "Who is your father?" I asked, rubbing my temples. He flashed a knowing grin but Hero answered for him. "The legendary Dracula." Right then and there, I think my heart failed to produce a beat.